Project 549
INDUCTION BALANCE
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METAL DETECTOR
A really sensitive design operating on a different principle from that of other
published circuits. This ‘Induction Balance’ metal locator will really sniff out
those buried coins and other items of interest at great depths (depending on
the size of the object).
Another metal locator, some of you
will say. Yes and no. Several designs
have been published in hobby electron-
ics magazines around the world, some
good, some downright lousy, but they
have invariably been Beat Frequency
Oscillator (BFO) types. There’s noth-
ing wrong with this principle — they
 are at least easy to build and simple to
set up. The design described here works
ETI: How To Build Gold & Treasure Detectors, 1981 — Copyright
on a very different principle, that of
induction balance (IB). This is also
known as the TR principle (Transmit-
Receive).
First a word of warning. The elec-
tronic circuitry of this project is
straightforward and should present no
difficulty even to the beginner. How-
ever, successful operation depends
almost entirely upon the construction of
the search head and its coils. This part
should account for about three-quarters
of the effort in construction. Great care,
neatness and patience is necessary and a
sensitive ‘scope, though not absolutely
essential, is very useful. It has to be
stated categorically that sloppy con-
struction of the coil will (not may)
invalidate the entire operation.
IB Versus BFO
The usual circuit for a metal locator is
shown in Fig. 2a. A search coil, usually
150 mm or so in diameter is connected
in the circuit to oscillate at between 100
and 150 kHz. A second internal oscilla-
tor operating on the same frequency is
included and a tiny part of each signal is
taken to a mixer and a beat note is pro-
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duced. When the search coil is brought
near metal, the inductance of the coil is
changed slightly, altering the frequency
and thus the tone of the note. A tone is
produced continually when the instru-
ment is in use and metal is identified by
a frequency change in the audio tone.
The IB principle, however, uses two
coils arranged in such a way that there
is virtually no inductive pick-up
between them. A modulated signal is
fed into one. When metal is brought
near, the electromagnetic field is dis-
turbed and the other coil picks up an
appreciably higher signal.
Ideally the instrument is initially set
up for no pick-up in the ‘receiver’ coil,
but this is impossible in practice — the
two coils are after all laid on top of each
other. Another problem is that our ears
are poor at identifying changes in audio
level. The circuit is therefore arranged
so that the signal is gated and is set up
so that only the minutest part of the sig-
nal is heard when no metal is present.
When the coils are near metal, a minute
change in level becomes an enormous
change in volume.
BFO detectors are not as sensitive as
IB types and have to be fitted with a
Faraday screen (beware of those which
aren’t — they’re practically useless) to
reduce capacitive effects on the coil.
They are however, slightly better than
IB types when it comes to pin-pointing
exactly where the metal is buried.
Our detector is extremely sensitive —
in fact a bit too sensitive for some appli-
cations! For this reason we’ve included
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 a high-low sensitivity switch. You may

ETI: How To Build Gold & Treasure Detectors, 1981 — Copyright

ask why low sensitivity is useful. As a

crude example, take a coin lying on a
wooden floor: on maximum sensitivity
the detector will pick up the nails, etc.,
and give the same readings as for the
coin, making it difficult to find.
Treasure hunting is an art and the
dual sensitivity may only be appreci-
ated after trials.
Table 1 gives the distances at which
various objects can be detected. These
are static readings and only give an
indication of range. If you are unim-
pressed with this performance you
should bear two things in mind: first
compare this with any other claims
(ours are excellent and honest) and sec-
ondly bear in mind how difficult it is to
dig a hole over 1 ft of ground every
time you get a reading. Try it — it’s
hard work!

Component Choice
We have specified Q1 and Q2 types
as BC549C (highest gain group) for
although lower gain transistors worked
for us, they left little reserve of level on
RV1 and really low gain types may not
work at all.

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How It Works — ETI 549
Q5, Q6 and associated components form
the transmitter section of the circuit. Q6 is
a P.U.T. which operates as a relaxation
oscillator, the audio note produced being
determined by R16 and C18. The specified
components give a tone of toughly 800 Hz.
Q5 is connected as Colpitt’s oscillator
working at a nominal 130 kHz; this signal
 is heavily modulated by C17 feeding to the
ETI: How To Build Gold & Treasure Detectors, 1981 — Copyright
base of Q5. In fact the oscillator produces
bursts of r.f. at 800 Hz. L1 in the search
head is the transmitter coil.
L2 is arranged in the search head in such
a way that the minimum possible signal
from L1 is induced into it (but see notes on
setting up). On all the prototypes we made
we reduced this to about 20 mV peak-to-
peak in L2. L2 is tuned by C5 and C6 and
peaked by CV1 and feeds to the base of
Q1, a high gain amplifier. This signal
(which is still modulated r.f.) is detected by
D1, and D2. The r.f. is eliminated by C8
and connects to the level control RV1.
The signal is amplified by Q2 and then
further amplified by Q3 which has no d.c.
bias connected to the base. In no-signal
conditions this will be turned off totally
and will only conduct when the peaks of
the 800 Hz exceed about 0.6V across R5.
Only the signal above this level is
amplified.
On low sensitivity these peaks are con-
nected to the volume control RV2 (any
stray r.f. or very sharp peaks being
smoothed by C21) and fed to the IC ampli-
fier and so to the speaker.
The high sensitivity stage Q4 is con-
nected at all times and introduces another
gating stage serving the same purpose as
the earlier stage of Q3. This emphasises the
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change in level in L2 even more dramati-
cally. Note that RV1 has to be set
differently for high and low sensitivity set-
tings of SW1.
Whichever setting is chosen for SW1.
RV1 is set so that a signal can just be
heard. In practice it will be found that
between no-signal and moderate-signal
there is a setting for RV1 where a ‘crackle’
can be heard. Odd peaks of the 800 Hz find
their way through but they do not come
through as a tone. This is the correct set-
ting for RV1.
The stage Q4 also feeds the meter cir-
cuit. Due to the nature of the pulses this
need only be very simple.
Since we are detecting really minute
changes in level it is important that the sup-
ply voltage in the early stages of the
receiver are stabilised, for this reason ZD1
is included to hold the supply steady inde-
pendent of battery voltage (which will fall
on high output due to the current drawn by
IC1).
It is also important that the supply volt-
age to Q5 and Q6 does not feed any signal
through to the receiver. If trouble is experi-
enced (we didn’t get any) a separate 9V
battery could be used to supply this stage.
IC1 is being well underused so a heat-
sink is unnecessary.
Battery consumption is fairly high on
signal conditions — between 60 mA and
80 mA on various prototypes but this will
only be for very short periods and is thus
acceptable. A more modest 20 mA or so is
normal at the ‘crackling’ setting.
Stereo headphones are used and are con-
nected in series to present 16 ohms to IC1
reducing current consumption.
RV1 is the critical control and should
be a high quality type — it will be
found that it has to be set very carefully
for proper operation.
The choice of an LM380 may seem
surprising as only a small part of its
power can be utilised with battery oper-
ation. It is however inexpensive and
widely available unlike the alternatives
(note it does not require dc blocking at
the input).
Output is connected for an 8 ohm
speaker and to headphones. Stereo types
are the most common and the wiring of
the jack socket is such that the two sec-
tions are connected in series presenting
a 16 ohm load (this reduces current con-
sumption from the battery).
Construction:Control Box
The majority of the components are
mounted on the PCB overlay and the
additional wiring is shown in Fig. 4.
Exceptional care should be taken to
mount all components firmly to the
board. Poor connections or dubious sol-
der joints may be acceptable in some
circuits — not in this one. Take care to
mount the transistors, diodes and elec-
trolytic capacitors the right way around.
The PCB is fitted into the control box
by means of 6 mm spacers. The control
box has to be drilled to take the speaker,
the pots, switches, headphone jack and
the cable from the search head.
The Handle Assembly
The handle we used was simply a
broom handle with the end cut off at
about 45°. After assembling the head,
the handle can be glued on with epoxy.
A small woodscrew can be used to hold
it in place until dry. This should be done
before final setting up of the coils — in
case the screw cannot be removed after
the glue has set.
The Coil
Remember this is the key to the
whole operation. The casing of the coil
is not so critical but the layout is.
It is best first to make the 6 mm ply-
wood circle to the dimensions shown in
Fig.6. A circle of thinner plywood or
hardboard is then firmly glued onto this
— it’s fairly easy to cut this after glue-
ing. Use good quality ply and a modern
wood glue to make this.
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
ETI: How To Build Gold & Treasure Detectors, 1981 — Copyright
This now forms a dish into which the
coils are fitted.
You’ll now have to find something
cylindrical with a diameter of near
enough 140 mm (5½ in). A coil will
then have to be made of 40 turns of 32
swg enamelled copper wire. The wire
should be wound close together and
kept well bunched and taped to keep it
together when removed from the
former. Two such coils are required.
These are identical.
One of the coils is then fitted into the
dish and spot glued in six or eight
places using quick setting epoxy resin:
see photograph.
L2 is then fitted into place, again spot
glueing (not in the area that it overlaps
L1). The cable connecting the coil to
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the circuit is then fed through a hole
drilled in the dish and connected to the
four ends. These should be directly
wired and glued in place, obviously tak-
ing care that they don’t short. The cable
must be a four-wire type with individ-
ual screens — the screens are left
unconnected at the search head.
You will now need the built up con-
trol box and preferably a ‘scope. The
transmit circuit is connected to L1. The
signal induced into L2 is monitored; at
first this may be very high but my
manipulating L2 the level will be seen
to fall to a very low level. When a very
low level is reached, spot glue L2 until
only a small part is left for bending.
Ensure that when you are doing this
that you are as far away from any metal
as possible but that any metal used to
mount the handle to the head is in place.
Small amounts of metal are acceptable
as long as they are taken into account
whilst setting up.
Now connect up the remainder of the
circuit and set RV1 so that it is just
passing through a signal to the speaker.
Bring a piece of metal near the coil and
the signal should rise. If it falls in level
(i.e. the crackling disappears) the coil
has to be adjusted until metal brings
about a rise with no initial falling. CV1
should be adjusted for maximum sig-
nal, this has to be done in conjunction
with RV1. The additional capacitors C1,
C2 and C4 should be linked in, if the
range is not available on CV1.
Monitoring this on a scope may mean
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
ETI: How To Build Gold & Treasure Detectors, 1981 — Copyright

that the induced signal is not at its abso-

lute minimum: this doesn’t matter too
much. Now add more spot glueing
points to L2.
You should now try the metal locator
in operation. If RV1 is being operated
entirely at the lower end of its track,
making setting difficult, you can select
a lower gain transistor such as a BC548
for Q2.
When you are quite certain that no
more manipulation of the coils will
improve the performance, mix up plenty
of epoxy resin and smother both coils,
making certain that you don’t move
them relative to each other.
The base plate can then be fitted to
enclose the coils, this should be glued in
place.
If after glueing in place the balance

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 between the coils is found to be not
quite tight it should be possible to glue
a small piece of metal (such as a
washer) somewhere on the head to can-
cel out the error.

Using The Metal Locator

You will find that finding buried
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metal is rather too easy. 95% will be

junk — silver paper being a curse. The
search head should be panned slowly
over the surface taking care to overlap
each sweep. The sensitive area is some-
what less than the diameter of the coil.
This type of locator will also pick up
some materials which are not metal —
especially coke And it is not at its best
in wet grass.
Think very carefully about where you
want to search: this is more important
than actually looking. The area you can
cover thoroughly is very, very small,
but this approach is far more successful
than nipping all over the place. As an
example of how much better a thor-
ough search is, we thoroughly tried on
25 square feet of common ground (5ft x
5ft); we found over 120 items but a in the holes you dig and to report any indication from the ‘crackle’ your ears
 quick search initially had revealed only interesting finds to museums. are likely to be more sensitive than the
ETI: How To Build Gold & Treasure Detectors, 1981 — Copyright

two! meter but thereafter it will come into its

Treasure hunting is growing in popu- Meter Circuit own.
larity and those who do it seriously have Since the circuit is basically sensing a This part of the circuit is optional and
adopted a code; essentially this asks you change in audio level, a meter circuit the components are not included on the
to respect other people’s property, to fill can be incorporated. For the very first board.

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